The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.

— Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

image source: blacktaiga

A billion stars in one image.
source: theatlantic

Yes Jane!

Bharatanatyam

Brilliant live...the facial expressions!!!
i love a good story.
image source: google

Recommended Read

This book is very well structured and focused, but by no means a quick fix!
Something i have been dipping in and out of over time and probably will be for some time to come.

a month of...

LEANNE SHAPTON, a former art director for the NY Times Op-Ed page, has been drawing “A Month of...,” a series about life’s minor notes and quotidian details. Included here are Monday shower songs, Friday Swims and Saturday flea markets. Take a look at all the days here.

I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.

— Mark Haddon (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time)

HAHA!
From Paul Mutant via ilikethisblog

from sophisticated-simplicities

Pose of the week

 

Malasana (Garland Pose)

A re-post...because  this pose is important!
Squatting is a fundamental movement that everyone, regardless of yoga practice and barring injury, needs to get right. We all have the intrinsic physical tools to squat the right way, and, as Mark Sisson so eloquently puts it... "if it weren’t for those pesky creature comforts of civilization (chairs, toilets, heeled shoes, Smith machines) softening us up and messing with our joint mobility, Grandma might be darning you a sweater from the Grok squat pose instead of the rocking chair."

Malasana is, i think, one of the most important stretches for the body and the beauty is it's about letting go and allowing gravity to do the work.

Practice Here's a 'how to' guide. I would advise using blocks or a folded/rolled mat under the heels if they don't comfortably come to the ground. It can also be a nice pose to do in partners to help you with that sense of surrender and spreading weight evenly over the feet.

Sequencing Good poses to prepare include Baddha Konasana, Upavistha Konasana and Virasana. Follow with Uttanasana and Adho Mukha Svanasana.

Benefits Stretches the ankles, lower legs, hips, groins and back torso and can help prevent compression on the tailbone, the sacrum and lower back.

Cautions  Low back or knee injuries.

Rhi Ellis

All images belong to Rhi Ellis

"bees are very perfect..."

"They're the most exact insects i ever knew"

Perspective

“After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.”

-- Richard Dawkins

image source: sophisticated-simplicities

Sequence

Forward Folds - Variations for Dandasana

Virasana (seated meditation)

Arm Stretch

Cat/cow/cat/cow/cat (keep roundness of cat in back for balasana)

Balasana (with active arms)

Balasana side stretch

Parighasana

Adho Mukha Svanasana

Adho Mukha Svanasana  transfer to  Urdhva Mukha Svanasana x3

Adho Mukha Svanasana -to -Uttanasana -to-Tadasana

Tadasana – Uttanasana – Malasana x3

Trikonasana

Parsvottansasa (facing wall - walk hands up)

Parsvottanasana (heel to wall)

Virabhadrasana I

Virabhadrasana III 

Uttanasana

Adho Mukha Svanasana

Dandasana

Parivrtta Dandasana  

Ubhaya Padangustasana 

Utpluti Dandasana 

Pashimottanasana 

Purvottanasana 

(repeat)

Sucirandhrasana

Jathara Parivartanasana

SAVASANA

found here

Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding on to.

Hernan Paganini

Hernan Paganini

Elspeth Diederix

Sunday Tune

Sunday Tune

Happy Weekend!

via baster

Pile On!!!

images from here, here and here.

Dogs!

Benjamin Niznik

Benjamin Niznik

Lithuanian national basketball team at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona with Grateful Dead t-shirts.
via ilikethisblog

This is Ska!

Dance instructions! Everyone can do the Ska ; )

10 Lessons from Einstien...

...and the most brilliant hair EVER.

1. Follow Your Curiosity “I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.”

2. Perseverance is Priceless “It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.”

3. Focus on the Present “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”

4. The Imagination is Powerful “Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

5. Make Mistakes “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.”

6. Live in the Moment “I never think of the future – it comes soon enough.”

7. Create Value “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.”

8. Don’t be repetitive “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

9. Knowledge Comes From Experience “Information is not knowledge. The only source of knowledge is experience.”

10. Learn the Rules and Then Play Better “You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

Found here via here.